Fifty years later the prediction doesn’t appear to have to come to pass, or hasn’t it? Wall Street is practically begging the consumer to go out and spend, since it would appear that upon consumer spending hinges the well being of the nation. Robots have not lived up to expectations, but the flood of products coming from China might as well be made by robots – they’re certainly not made by Americans. What no one predicted in 1960 was that the middle class would begin to disappear. It is a dangerous time because social change often leads to unpredictable consequences – revolutions, religious intolerance, wars. The answer for the new millennium likely hinges on redefining capitalism to be more inclusive: After abundance, enlightment.

You have doubtless come across ads for free credit reports, a ruse to get your credit card number and start charging you a monthly fee. You’ve also been exposed to car insurance ads touting the savings you can realize by comparing rates from other companies. If you’re over 65, there’s the bewildering maze of insurance offerings to supplement Medicare (and make Medicare a practical reality). The high cost of developing medicines is more than offset by profits that defy imagination, and the value of said medicines may be questionable in many cases (some manufacturers cheerfully inform their prospective customer that death is a possible side-effect, but not to worry – it’s FDA approved). The unfortunate reality is that unethical companies are run by unethical people. It will not be easy to replace criminal greed with a sense of ethics – besides, no one seems to be trying.

Hence followed a scarcity of money, a great shock being given to all credit, the current coin too, in consequence of the conviction of so many persons and the sale of their property, being locked up in the imperial treasury or the public exchequer. To meet this, the Senate had directed that every creditor should have two-thirds of his capital secured on estates in Italy. Creditors however were suing for payment in full, and it was not respectable for persons when sued to break faith. So, at first, there were clamorous meetings and importunate entreaties; then noisy applications to the praetor’s court. And the very device intended as a remedy, the sale and purchase of estates, proved the contrary, as the usurers had hoarded up all their money for buying land. The facilities for selling were followed by a fall of prices, and the deeper a man was in debt, the more reluctantly did he part with his property, and many were utterly ruined. The destruction of private wealth precipitated the fall of rank and reputation, till at last the emperor (Tiberius) interposed his aid by distributing throughout the banks a hundred million sesterces, and allowing freedom to borrow without interest for three years, provided the borrower gave security to the State in land to double the amount. Credit was thus restored, and gradually private lenders were found.

So here’s my proposal: let companies and organizations set-up their own news broadcasts, and let the public decide for themselves. Take health care, for example. Let’s hear it from Blue Cross, AARP, the AMA, the Democrats, the Republicans… Who needs a TV anchor to moderate? How does an inept and biased individual help in the process? It’s not the bias so much, you would expect some opinion to creep in, it’s the spectacle of grown man and women with the depth of knowledge of a 10-year-old posturing like adults.

Well, this may be a case of protesting too munch. At an earlier epoch of our nation’s history robber barons took to the stage, and eventually – through legislation and enforcement – a healthy middle class came into being. This time around the robber barons are less visible, but they are there nevertheless. They hide behind the notion that market forces will take care of everything, when we all know how those forces can be manipulated. As a lifelong marketer I have come to appreciate what it takes to market a product or a service, and I can assure that we are not talking about the same market forces that have driven our economy to the brink of destruction. What we have here is deliberate fraud, also of limitless proportions. Oh sure, one or two rascals have been caught perpetrating Ponzi schemes, as if that pointed to the real culprits. The real culprits are the large financial institutions that have relinquished business principles for the siren call of the credit card mentality. If individuals could live beyond their means, why not corporations? The difference is that individuals don’t usually attempt to defraud the credit card companies. Financial institutions, deliberately and with malice, packaged and sold worthless pieces of paper to unwary investors – under no oversight or enforcement of existing laws.

Advertising of prescription medicines – despite the best efforts of countless lobbyists – has had to reveal to the public that side effects may include death, while financial institutions are under no obligations to tell you anything they choose to keep secret. The cry of “This is socialism!” as it relates to the current Democratic agenda may be right, but make no mistake – slogans are only ever used to camouflage the truth. The same robber barons who brought about this catastrophe now claim to be the defenders of their own corrupt brand of capitalism.

As a committed marketer I have always wondered why the rules get tossed aside in bad times. Just as we get hungriest for customers we stop chasing them. Are marketing costs that extravagant or discretionary? Yes they are – just ask any CFO. Well, CFOs will tell you that about any expenditure, but what about CEOs? It would seem that somewhere it is written than when buyers stop spending we enter the siege state – cut marketing costs, reduce inventories, prune personnel (you can finally get rid of expensive older people without running the risk of being charged with discrimination), and generally circle the wagons. Wow! What a formula for success. Shouldn’t we be looking to steal what few customers remain from the competition? Isn’t this the time to work on your image, while everyone else goes ‘dark?’ What about the old precept that compels us to never say problem when we can say opportunity? Nothing but a worn-out platitude, except that during a recession it might be a truism.

Nonetheless, here’s where we are. What’s your story of marketing woes?

The operators of search engines are interested in providing a service that fairly reflects the relative value of their searches, while the rest of us are out to skew those findings in our direction, whether or not we deserve it. And so the conflict goes on. Do we need to agonize over our position in searches? To some extent, yes, but there are so many other aspects of business that need our attention that where we end up in the search stakes is not that vital. Building a solid reputation, engendering trust, being responsive…if you can deal successfully with those elements, search engines will find you fast enough.